CARLTON FLETCHER : We created this American welfare state

It seems to me I could live my life A lot better than I think I am. I guess that’s why they call me, They call me the workin’ man.

— Rush

Albany — because we live here and know the inner workings a little better — but, really, the entire country, finds itself in the ultimate Catch-22.

We are deep in the middle of dealing with a third generation of individuals and families who have had pretty much all of their basic needs provided by one government agency or another to the point that they know nothing else.

I guess before I continue here, I need to point out that this is not another rant by some right-wing, conservative nutjob who uses terms like “entitlement,” “Obamacrats” and “welfare population” as thinly-veiled cover for their inner racist tendencies that they’re not quite brave enough to espouse without such “code,” although who they think they’re fooling is anyone’s guess.

No, this city’s — and this country’s — problem with such individuals is of its own making. Rather than providing for “widows and orphans,” which is the sole groups that such giveaway programs were initially intended for, we lazily added more and more and more people to the rolls of the programs to the point that there became no distinction worthy of omission (unless an individual ticked off a government case worker).

That’s how we ended up with able-bodied young men and women wandering the streets, jobs the farthest thing from their minds. Under whatever program, they’re getting monthly “checks” that provide the necessities: food, rent, electricity, health care, transportation, education.

And women are allowing themselves to become baby factories, bringing ever more children into substandard living circumstances because more babies mean larger checks and less of a risk that, at some point, they might be in a situation where they have to work to provide for these babies.

But you know what? These people — and please know that, unlike the aforementioned closeted and cowardly racists who see the out-of-control welfare state as an issue of color, this gaming of the system is by no measure one solely driven by ethnicity — are living in these circumstances because we as a country collectively decided that it was easier to just give poor people the things that they need — and others they just want — than it was to create programs that would help them get an education and find meaningful jobs.

Government workers found it much easier to accept misinformation — much of it they knew to be false — than to go through the tedious process of following up. And, as more and more learned of the latest way to get in on the gravy train, these government workers were too overwhelmed by numbers to even think about qualifications. Just stamp the paper … NEXT!

Education, long a calling whose practitioners held the militaristic belief that no child would be left behind — before that became some clueless politicians’ empty slogan that sounded good during campaigns — gave up on passing on the true knowledge of their calling when their job morphed into one of meeting standardized test quotas, some arbitrary “standards” that bean counters set as proof of classroom efficiency. Just give these kids — many of whom couldn’t even read — a “C” and send them on.

Government leaders, worried about their next election, OK’d the use of more and more of other people’s money to implement programs that passed out ever more freebies as a means of currying favor when it came election time. To the tax base — the people who were paying for all of this — they talked the good talk, assured the working folks their political focus was on things like jobs and public safety and reduction of crime. Meanwhile, they signed off on the usage of more of other peoples’ money to keep their “base” happy, helping sponsor one more giveaway program to meet someone’s artificially created “need.”

Yes, all you hard-working middle- and upper-class stiffs who are “fed up” with the giveaways and the entitlements — oh, and by the way, the wealthy people in this country are the most entitled creatures on earth, under the mistaken impression that their money somehow gives them the right to circumvent the rules that others of us are expected to live by — you have created through your indifference the mess that plagues our city and our country.

I’ve heard the brilliant “we’re-mad-as-hell-and-we’re-not-going-to-take-it-any-more” rhetoric of the angry Right — a great many of whom are part of the true entitlement crowd — whose idea of dealing with this issue is to “cut ‘em off, just quit giving out freebies to anyone who doesn’t, by God, get off their duff and work for it.”

Which might have been a workable idea before we got into a third welfare generation. But now, you take all those people who’ve never had to work for anything in their lives and tell them from this point in time on they will get nothing but what they pay for themselves. Do that and see what happens.

Yep, you may save a lot of money by cutting off funds that once helped the poor — and others cheating the system — maintain something of a stable standard of living, but you’re going to need a lot more than that to hire law enforcement legions once people who have nothing to lose run amok.

That, they can do. Because we as a country have at least taught them that much.

Email [email protected] or follow on Twitter @ABH_Fletcher.